


Mistakes Forgiven

by Cornerofmadness



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Hints of Brightwell, Malcolm Bright Gets a Hug, Malcolm Bright Needs a Hug, Mild Angst, Post-Episode: s01e20 Like Father ...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:02:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23922031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornerofmadness/pseuds/Cornerofmadness
Summary: Malcolm only meant to bring snacks asking nothing in return but what he wants is to be forgiven.
Relationships: Gil Arroyo/Jessica Whitly
Comments: 7
Kudos: 55
Collections: Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2020





	Mistakes Forgiven

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** Not mine, Chris Fedak and Sam Sklaver owns it
> 
>  **Notes:** written for Sherlockian_syn in comment_fic for the prompt Any, any, trying snacks from other countries. This went a little sideways and a little angst got mixed into the fluff. It has spoilers for the finale

_Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them. Bruce Lee_

Malcolm carted the big thermal bag down the hospital hall, trying to ignore the cacophony of beeping alarms, nurse call button noises, IV stand and EKG sounds. When he had spent weeks in the hospital, he was certain the unending noise would drive him insane. The harsh antiseptic smell, mixed with smells of disease and bodily waste didn’t help matters. _Gil will be out of here soon_ , he told himself. It was true and that’s what he had to concentrate on.

He sailed into Gil’s room and came up short. He wasn’t surprised to see someone from the team there but hadn’t expected both JT and Dani sitting along the wall nor had he expected his mother to have her chair pulled up close to Gil’s bed. Yes, she had visited here before. Hell, she had _saved_ Gil – wrecking another of his cars and he couldn’t be more in awe or proud of her. He just hadn’t realized she’d visit so often and he wondered what was he missing. _You know what it is. You just don’t want to admit it_. Malcolm offered everyone a fragile smile. 

He, Dani and JT had been speaking over the last week and a half as Gil convalesced but it had been superficial. It was mostly his fault. He felt strange among them. Ainsley hadn’t just killed Endicott. She had _slaughtered_ him. He dreamt of it every night and in those dreams his teammates judged him in ways they had never done in reality. Also, he had lied to them and knew he had damaged the trust they had in him. It was a loss and one he wasn’t dealing with today, or at least not yet.

He hefted the bag. “Doc said you could have normal food now, Gil, so I brought snacks.”

Gil smiled weakly. Malcolm wasn’t used to seeing him beardless but the nurses had shaved him right out of surgery so the oxygen mask would seal better in those early hours of recovery. “What did you bring me, kid?”

“And did you bring enough for everyone?” His mother eyed him.

“I didn’t know everyone would be here but the answer is still yes.”

“It’s not a bunch of suckers, is it?” JT shot him a sour look.

Malcolm narrowed his eyes at him. “Dr. Le Deux has the best lollipops.”

“Wait? You’ve been giving us therapy suckers?” JT raised his eyebrows.

“Yes.”

“What did you bring?” Dani prompted him, putting a hand on JT’s knee, cutting him off.

“It’ll be sweet,” Gil said. “His snacks are always sweet.”

Malcolm thinned his lips. He’d lost control somewhere. He pulled a chair up to between Dani’s seat and Gil’s bed. “For that, I’ll give them all to JT because I made a special effort to get your favorite from Ocampo’s.”

Color touched Gil’s face and he eagerly pulled himself up a bit more against the inclined head of his bed. “You didn’t! Did you bring me chinks?”

“What are chinks?” Dani asked as Malcolm pulled the big paper bag of them out of the thermal bag. 

“Deep fried chicken skins.” Gil grinned.

“Ooo, yeah, I have to have some of that.” JT got up and took the bag from Malcolm and put it on the bed tray. “Chicken skin is the best part.”

His mother shook her head. “You survived a horrible stabbing only to die of pure cholesterol.”

Gil nodded. “Happily. Have some, JT.”

“I’m guessing that’s a no for you, Mom.” Malcolm wasn’t sure he’d ever seen his mother eat anything fried and from the dirty look, he was assuming it wouldn’t be today, or at least it wouldn’t be chicken skins because everything he brought was fried. He took out another bag and surrendered one of the crispy skewers to Dani. “Banana-cue? It’s just a banana covered in brown sugar and deep fried.”

Her pupils dilated and she took it from him. “That sounds delicious.” 

“They’re amazing,” he assured her as JT crunched his way through a second skin. “They’re similar to the turon which is basically just a banana spring roll.” Malcolm fetched up that bag and handed it to his mother figuring she was more likely to try that than the obscene-looking banana on a stick. Dani had no compunctions about eating it right off the skewer, and Malcolm found he couldn’t quite look at her because his mind was suddenly thirteen and hormonal and Dani would have no troubles kicking him in the similarly shaped body part. 

“This is a wonderful feast, Malcolm. There’s so much, I’m not sure it counts as a snack.” Gil laughed shallowly, putting his hand over his gut. Malcolm knew from experience how much it hurt. 

“It’s all snack food so it’s a snack. And I’m not done. I brought snack food from around the world.” He beamed, rather proud of his bounty because he didn’t do well with food in general and getting it right this time felt like an accomplishment. Of course, with all he’d been through in the last few weeks, he was scrambling for any win he could grab onto. “Okay, technically two countries but they’re far apart. “I spotted an Italian street food truck on the way here and I couldn’t resist and before you ask, Mother, it’s fried too. It’s all fried.”

“They’re your arteries, son. Do to them what you will.” She flipped a hand at him but he noticed she was indeed eating the sweet turon rather happily.

“On the savory side,” he shot Gil a look, “Sgagliozze, which is fried polenta and on the sweet side, crema fritta which are basically deep-fried cream puffs.”

Dani’s eyes popped and she clamped a hand on his arm. “Make with those.”

Laughing, he gave her the bag and let her fish out two before he plopped it on the bed tray so they call could help themselves. He actually took a chicken skin and the polenta before wading into the sweets. Yes, the grease would probably make him regret it later but seeing how happy everyone was, it was worth it.

“Don’t you tell Tally how much of this I ate.” JT nudged him, another chicken skin in his hand. “This is delicious. Never heard of Ocampo’s but now I have to find it.”

“It’s Filipino,” Gil said, his voice still too weak in Malcolm’s ears. “I got Malcolm started on the turons when he came with me and Jackie to the Philippines.”

“You took him halfway across the world? I couldn’t sit next to him in a car for an hour without all that nervous energy making me nuts.” JT snorted.

“You should have tried it on a two-day flight when he was fourteen.” Gil rolled his eyes.

“He would have learned to skydive sans chute.”

“Thanks.” Malcolm sighed. Gil and Jackie probably deserved a medal for that trip.

“It was really nice of you to bring all this, Malcolm,” Dani said, helping herself to the fried polenta.

“It was me in that bed not that long ago,” he replied, and his mother’s face went whiter than the cream in the puff pastries at the memory. “I know how boring hospital food is, especially the snacks.”

“This isn’t going to be another lecture on the evils of all Jell-0s that aren’t, lemon is it?” Dani narrowed his eyes at him.

“Another?” JT cocked up an eyebrow.

“You wouldn’t think that you could talk the entire drive about Jell-O but you’d be wrong.”

“Fine, green Jell-O sucks, is that better?” Malcolm snorted.

“Much more to the point.”

“And I was hoping at least one of you two would be here because I owe you both an apology.” Malcolm took a deep breath in. The look on Gil’s face said ‘keep quiet’ but why would he start doing that now? “I shouldn’t have lied to you about leaving the house and maybe I should have trusted you two to know I wasn’t guilty, that you would have known I’d have never left that much evidence behind had I killed someone. I’m not stupid.” Malcolm winced. That came out angrier than he meant it to but it had hurt even if he didn’t blame them, not really. His damn hand started shaking. “I guess there’s more than one of us with trust issues, and it wasn’t that long ago the FBI hung me out to dry. They had me guilty of things I wasn’t, and it wasn’t the first time I’d taken blame when things had gone wrong even if it wasn’t my fault. But I should have trusted you two. It’s just…I’m not used to trusting people.”

Dani put her hand over his shaking one, stilling it. “We know. It’s okay now.” 

Malcolm caught her gaze flick toward his mother. Dani hadn’t forgotten her saying the cops weren’t his friends but they had been obviously talking before he arrived. They were most likely past that. 

“We had to look objective, me and JT. We knew we’d never get Edrisa onboard with that,” Dani said, and JT rolled his eyes. “But if they thought we weren’t…”

“You’d have been taken off the case and someone who didn’t have my best interests at heart would have taken over. I know. Are we good now?” His voice waivered a bit, fearing the answer.

“Of course,” Dani said.

“Are you okay, though, bro?” JT filched a crema fritta. 

Malcolm started his standard lie then shook his head. “No. Not really. But I’m cleared of suspicion of murder. Gil is recovering.” He reached out and put his hand on Gil’s arm to assure himself of that. “Ainsley’s on house arrest but it looks like they’ll call it justified after everything Endicott did.”

“But she’s taking house arrest even worse than you did, if that’s possible,” his mother said but her whole demeanor seemed fragile. What could he expect? She’d seen Gil being attacked, had been covered in his blood, only to come home to find her daughter coated in Endicott’s. Her home looked like an abattoir and both of her children had been under suspicion of murder. They were still working out what Ainsley’s actions meant for everyone. 

“Not a surprise.” Malcolm went to run his hand through his hair, stopped himself, realizing how greasy his fingers were. “I’m not okay but I will be.”

“You keep feeding me like this and we’re good,” JT assured him.

Malcolm chuckled. “Good. You want more, Gil? Or are you tired?”

“Getting a little tired,” he admitted. “But one more of these.” He took a turon. 

“We should let you get some rest.” JT stood.

“Take the rest of these.” Gil handed him the bag of skins.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Gil.” Dani stood and Malcolm hurriedly divvied up some of the goodies for her and JT.

As they left, he gave Gil a hug, happy that the returning embrace felt stronger today. “I’ll leave you the rest of the snacks. Give it to the nurses if you don’t want it later,” he said.

“I will.”

Malcolm ducked out of the room, got three steps and realized he’d forgotten his bag. He went to get it but froze in the doorway, seeing his mother kissing Gil as he put the head of the bed flat. Malcolm did an about face. _Nope, not ready to deal with that_. He’d get the bag tomorrow. He hurried down the hall and fall in step with Dani. JT was already further down the corridor. 

“I know we really aren’t a hundred percent good,” he said. “I’ll try to do better.”

She glanced away. “Me too. I’ve been disappointed by people I’ve trusted too many times but I shouldn’t have been so quick to doubt you.”

He shrugged. “There were a whole lot of trauma responses going on yours, mine, just about everyone really, and I’ll be honest, there are probably more to come but we maybe we can be…I don’t know, easier on ourselves. We have high expectations of ourselves but humans have failings. I know I have a lot of them and right now…I don’t know how to process half of what’s happened. I let my temper get the better of me and for that I’m sorry.”

Dani draped an arm around his shoulders giving him a gentle shake. “I wish I knew how to make things better for you.”

He leaned into her touch. “That alone does.”

“How about we leave all that stuff in the past. We can’t change it.” Dani sighed softly. “But I like the idea of being easier on ourselves.”

“Me too.”

“Can I ask a personal question?” She gave his shoulder a squeeze as they stopped in front of the elevator where JT was already waiting. 

“Yeah.”

“Does your mom have a thing for Gil?” Dani flashed him a smile.

“Remember me saying there was going to be more trauma responses?” he said and JT wagged his head.

Dani patted his back and stepped away. She pulled out another banana-cue and slid half off the skewer. “Sugar to make it better?”

“Thanks.” There wasn’t going to be enough sugar to fix him up but not having Dani and JT still angry with him was a step in the right direction. As for the rest, Gil and his mother were two of the most important people in the world to him. Once the shock wore off, he’d be happy. Yes, he still had tons of trauma to work through but he wasn’t alone, not anymore. He needed to remember that. He popped the crunchy sweet fried banana into his mouth. He had his team and he would be okay.


End file.
